Teacher fired after asking students for back rubs
October 6, 2008 by Fred HosierPosted in: Employees do the strangest things, Latest News & Views
Donna Coulter, a third grade teacher in the Kissimmee, FL, Charter Academy, had a system of giving her students various classroom jobs.
Pupils cleaned the room, organized books or took out the trash.
But parents weren’t happy about one of the usual jobs on the list: Give the teacher a back massage.
Now Coulter is out of a job.
Parents complained when their children told them that giving Coulter a back rub was one of the duties on the classroom job list.
School administrators told WFTV-TV that Coulter no longer works for the district and that a new teacher has already been hired. Because the situation is considered a personnel matter, they won’t confirm the firing was due to the back massages.
Tags: back massages, fired, teacher
November 30th, 2008 at 6:30 pm
[...] Teacher fired after asking students for back rubs – third grade teacher Donna Coulter crossed the line and was fired. Inappropriate, sure, but folks, these are grade three children. I think the instruction “don’t do it again” would have sufficed. [...]
May 31st, 2009 at 7:46 am
This is totally ridiculous. So what if she asked for backrubs? My Grade 1 teacher also asked for backrubs .Its not like it is something sexual or or any sexually exploiting nature.
Its totally unfair to fire her. You should really just have told her never again and that would have been fine . I think she should take the school to court . I would sue the living hell out of them.
July 14th, 2009 at 6:51 am
I must say that I’m with you. In fact I am a massage teacher and I can see the benefits of students giving a little rub to the teacher … jajaja … I wish my learners had the time to rub my back … jejeje
But, I must say that maybe was the way it was put forward, learners should not be force to rub the teachers back, and she should not impose her power over the learner for personal gain. However, yes, to fire her was a bit too extreme.
I would like to see that all educational institutuion to include in their programs some sort of holistic treatment. It has been proven that if children rub eachothers (back/arm/hand/head ..etc) at the begining of the day, they have the tendency not to bully their peers and their learning capabilites are increased. To top it up I would include that teachers should also give and recive some sort of mini treatment … this way they would all start the day much more happier!
